Secretary for Development Michael Wong today said the Government is striving to provide new public housing in Kowloon Central, although future new supply would mainly come from the Northern Metropolis and large-scale projects.

In response to one lawmaker’s series of questions at the Legislative Council, Mr Wong said future new supply of public housing in the city would mainly come from individual new development areas, the Northern Metropolis and large-scale projects such as the Kau Yi Chau Artificial Islands.

This is because there are limited land resources in the urban areas and many places have already been developed, he explained.

That said, the Government is still striving to provide new public housing in Kowloon Central comprising Kowloon City district and the north-western part of Wong Tai Sin district.

In the next five years, about 16,000 units will be provided in the two districts, of which 12,200 public housing units would come from the new land of the Kai Tak Development Area.

Also, the Government is actively developing three urban squatter areas which are suitable for high-density housing development, namely, Cha Kwo Ling Village, Ngau Chi Wan Village and Chuk Yuen United Village.

These three redevelopment projects are progressing well and according to current estimation, the projects will provide a total of around 8,700 public housing units to be completed in phases starting from 2029.

The development chief noted that the Urban Renewal Authority has been playing a role to enhance the public housing supply within its capacity.

For instance, the authority will provide subsidised Starter Homes (SH) units in suitable redevelopment projects, with its eResidence project providing nearly 500 SH units.

The authority has also decided to assign the redevelopment project adjacent to eResidence as another SH project which is expected to provide about 260 SH units for pre-sale in 2023-24.

On the redevelopment of “13 Streets” in To Kwa Wan and that of Kowloon City district, Mr Wong said the authority is considering a range of factors holistically.

Due to market sensitivity and confidentiality, the URA will only promulgate the project details upon specific project commencement, through publication in the gazette or other means.

Apart from Kowloon City, the authority is also conducting a preliminary feasibility study on some projects in Wong Tai Sin to identify opportunities for urban renewal, Mr Wong added.